Film shines light on Obama's Kenyan sister

The Education of Auma Obama – Auma Obama at her family's homestead in the village of Kogelo, Kenya, in 2008 as her half brother attempted to become president of the United States.

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Film tells story of Barack Obama's Kenyan sister4 photos

The Education of Auma Obama – Auma with her paternal grandmother Sarah -- a relative she shares with President Barack Obama.

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Film tells story of Barack Obama's Kenyan sister4 photos

The Education of Auma Obama – Auma Obama grew up in the village of Kogelo, Kenya. She has lived in Germany and the UK, and is now a social worker and youth advocate in Nairobi.

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Film tells story of Barack Obama's Kenyan sister4 photos

The Education of Auma Obama – Film director Branwen Okpako has been friends with Auma Obama since they met in Berlin in the early 1990s.

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Story highlights

Auma Obama shares a father with the U.S. president

Film follows her family watching 2008 election from their homestead in Kenya

Auma on Barack Obama: "He makes me very proud"

Director Branwen Okpako met Auma Obama at film school in Berlin

When Barack Obama won the U.S. election four years ago, his Kenyan half sister Auma was with her family at their homestead, watching the historic occasion on television.

It was a night Auma Obama remembers well. "We had a lot of people visiting to watch with us," she says. "There was a lot of excitement because it had been such a tough race. There was a sense of relief that all the hard work had paid off."

Alongside Auma and her family was filmmaker Branwen Okpako, who was making a documentary about Auma, "The Education of Auma Obama, " which is being shown in London Tuesday to coincide with the U.S. election and as part of the Film Africa festival.

"I will never forget that period in their homestead," says Okpako. "It was indescribable. Imagine something like that is happening to your family, yet so far away."

Okpako, 43, a Nigerian-born filmmaker living in Germany, became friends with Auma when they were both film students in Berlin in the early 1990s.

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Auma Obama on meeting her brother Barack

Auma shares a father -- Barack Senior -- with her younger half brother, Barack. The pair did not meet until after their father died in 1982 and Barack got in touch with Auma to explore his Kenyan roots.

Okpako had the idea for a film about her friend Auma in the run-up to the 2008 election.

Auma recalls: "I wasn't particularly enthusiastic when Branwen first suggested the film, but I agreed because she is a friend and I trusted her. If it had been a stranger, I don't think I would have done it."

Okpako says Auma was initially reticent about the film because of the huge media interest in her family that came with Barack Obama's rise to prominence.

"It has put me in the limelight in a way that wouldn't have happened otherwise," says Auma. "I don't like talking about my family but it's great if it gives me the chance to talk about my work with deprived and underprivileged children."

Auma, who lives in Nairobi, traveled with Okpako to the family's homestead in the village of Kogelo, where her grandmother lives and Barack Senior is buried.

"We were sitting together for 10 days waiting for the election and reflecting how we got to this moment in time," says Okpako.

"We were reading the newspapers and reading the statistics, but of course we didn't know what was going to happen. It was intense and full of anticipation.

"The film deals with that moment in time when history was made, but also how they got to that moment."

She adds: "All the family was there, the grandmother, all the cousins. Once the result was known everybody in the village came into the compound to celebrate. There must have been hundreds of people there."

"The Education of Auma Obama" will be shown in London on this year's election day, Tuesday, November 6, as part of the Film Africa festival, and Okpako will be there for a question and answer session with the audience.

Auma says she has to work on election day, but she will still be watching events unfold.

"I follow my brother's career as closely as any sibling would," she says.

"It's important for me to know whether or not he is happy in his job," she adds. "He makes me very proud because he has a tough job and does it 100% to his ability."

The film premiered at last year's Toronto International Film Festival and has won awards at the PanAfrican Film Festival in Los Angeles and the Africa International Film Festival in Lagos.